Birthday
by Princess Iria
Summary: SxS It's Seifer's birthday! Seifer finds an interesting piece of writing tucked away from a few years back and remembers some of his past birthdays... Slight Rinoabashing inside.


Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VIII is property of Squaresoft. If you expect the characters to be 100% in character, then you're looking at the wrong person. If you just want a fanfic, then enjoy! 

Note: This is my first attempt at doing Seifer or anything from Final Fantasy. I hope you don't mind that I made up everything about Seifer's childhood. It's not like they tell you much. 

Birthday 

He told me to wait here while he got me the cake and presents, and so I did. Actually I went into my room and decided to do some organizing for the first time in my life. I usually don't care to live in a pig sty, but I was completely bored. Of course maybe I get too bored easily, but it doesn't matter. 

The first place I attacked was my desk. Usually I just throw all my papers in my desk drawer or pile them on the edge of my desk. I probably lost a lot of my papers from having them fall into my wastebasket next to the desk, but that didn't work as an excuse anymore. Quistis was a lot harder on me this time I went through the process. And if you didn't know, I became a SEED after the war. There wasn't anything else to do. 

Rummaging through the first pile on my desk, I found multiple copies of the Garden announcements mixed in with personal writings. Another surprise? I may not be a good writer, but writing helps me clear up some thoughts. It didn't fit with my image back then, so I kept it to myself. 

As I dumped the garden announcements into the garbage, I noticed some of my handwriting on the back of one of the yellow papers. It was titled "Birthday". I thought that was kind of ironic, because today is my birthday. 

Birthday 

Happy Birthday. What a load of crap. For you it may be the day that your friends come over, give you presents and eat cake. I, on the other hand, celebrate my birthday with my gunblade. I wonder how I was able to survive another year of hell, and sometimes I wonder why I even bother to live any more. 

Don't take me wrong; I'm not suicidal at all. I just started on the wrong foot with birthdays, and they never ever got better. Even the day I was born, the actual "birth date", was the day my father left my mother. He probably saw me and thought to himself, "He looks like his whore mother." My mother told me that if I had looked more like my father that he wouldn't have left her to try to raise me by herself. I think that she just wanted to blame me for her mistake; she was the one who had sex with a guy who obviously was not interested in becoming attached. She wanted to blame me for the fact that he didn't even pay her a cent for raising me. 

My first birthday, or the one-year mark, was celebrated at my mother's friend's house. I was put in the bedroom all alone while my mother drank with her friends in the living room. When I started to cry, they couldn't even hear me because the music was so loud and they were laughing uncontrollably. It was disgusting. I was all sticky and smelly from my diapers overflowing and not being changed. Then the next morning she finally washed me and blamed me for making her friend have to wash the sheets. 

The neglect and abuse continued. When I learned to walk, I managed to go outside of the apartment and begged for something to eat. When my mother was so desperate for alcohol, she was not feed me for a day and get herself drunk. She thought all that would keep me inside was a door lock. I think I was roaming the streets at 2 AM in the morning sometimes at the age of 5. 

It was my sixth birthday when my mother finally kicked me out. I had seen birthday cakes in the stores and I wanted one for my birthday. She was so angry with me that she yelled at me before locking me outside the house. It was hard for me to understand that I was to "never come back". Finally she took me far away and left me alone in the park. She slapped me multiple times when I tried to grab onto her coat. Eventually some kind stranger pitied me and brought me to the orphanage. That's how I met Edea and the rest. 

You may think that now my birthdays were happy because I would have cake and everything. However I spent my birthdays trying to coax Squall into playing with me or hanging out with a bunch of orphanage "friends" who had a better time by themselves. It wasn't that no one was my friend; I had Squall when he was not by himself. Our relationship deteriorated right when "Sis" left. I remember being so mad on my birthday that he wouldn't play with me that I vowed to fight him instead. Look where that got me. It seemed like everyone was on his side. Even though I went to Garden first, they all liked him. I was jealous…for a few reasons. 

First, he had everyone's attention without even trying. I had to fight him or find trouble in order to have my name on someone's tongue. Second, everyone liked him. Girls were attracted to him; boys liked how he was calm and uncaring. Third, I liked him. I don't know when I found this out, but it was around the age of 15 when I started to dream about him. Of course I never told him. I accepted the fact that I was gay, but not the fact that I was in love with my archenemy. I remember sneaking into a gay bar on my sixteenth and having my first taste of alcohol. I got drunk obviously, and remembered having this one guy trying to take off my clothes. When I realized that the guy was too large to be Leonhart, I threw him off me. He told me that I was a fool to be looking for "true love" and that "sex was good enough". I never went back there again. 

The next birthday was spent in detention. I couldn't believe we still had school that day, and the teacher was pissed at me so he threw me in a side room and left me there for a few hours. By the time I got out I was so tight from sitting for so long that all I did that night was try to get my limbs to start functioning again. Thankfully no one was around to see me stumble down the hallway. It would have been embarrassing. 

Finally, on my last birthday, I spent a whole night with Rinoa. Of course it was my fault because I became her boyfriend, but it seemed like her birthday and not mine. I was disgusted by the way she clutched my arm and quoted me saying things I never said. Her friends were all complete bimbos, and I rather talk to a wall. Like Leonhart… 

"Squall?" I said, hearing some noises from the living room. All I heard in response was a box being set down and a loud sigh. Leaving the piece of paper on my desk, I ran out the bedroom and greeted him with a hug. 

"Your cake?" he asked me. I took the lead in destroying the box. Wow…it's a humongous cake. It even has "Happy 20th Birthday, Seifer" written on it with chocolate icing. Squall puts the candles on and lights them. He then "sings" for me. Well, it's more like a monotone pitch, I would say. Then I blew out the candles. I cut a huge chunk of cake for myself and started eating. 

"So what were you doing while I was gone?" Squall asked. "Usually it isn't so quiet." 

"Reading," I replied. "I wrote something over birthdays and I found it today. To think of what I thought before I got together with you…" 

"It's been a year, hasn't it?" Squall said. I nodded while stuffing a piece of cake into my mouth. I remember that day so clearly. Exactly one year ago, I was smashing up some grats when Squall came by. He wasn't running or walking, but he was going pretty fast. Right after I knocked down my last grat for the day, he grabbed my coat and dragged me into the secret area. I looked at him, confused. He told me to hush up and listen. Soon enough, Rinoa's voice could be heard. 

"Squall, where are you? Squall, I can't believe you broke up with me! Squall, I can't believe you're gay! Oh my god, Squall, come here before everyone finds out and make up!" she screeched. It was funny, and I couldn't help but laugh a little. Finally she was gone, and I could blast out into full out laughter. 

"Oh God, Squall," I told him. "It must have been hell." For like the first time I felt pity for him. I rather be with anyone else but her… 

He nodded. "After she realized I liked a guy, she went ballistic," he said. I didn't need any more of a description to know what he was talking about. She did the same with me. 

"Who is the guy?" I asked, curious. I was wondering what kind of guy would attract Leonhart. Maybe I was a little hopeful, because for weeks I thought I had imagined his eyes on me. 

"Um…" he said nervously. He was probably debating whether he should tell me or not. "It's you," he finally replied. 

I don't think my jaw could have dropped any further. "Me?" I said. He nodded. I found myself walking closer and closer to him on my own. Soon we were just a foot away from each other. 

"I was going to ask you…will you be my boyfriend?" Squall said. As soon as the words came out I replied with a loud "yes". And that's how we got together… 

"Seifer, are you going to eat the cake?" Squall asked, breaking my thoughts. 

"Oh yeah," I said before digging into the scrumptious cake. "Mmmm…" 

"Well hurry up. I'll be in the bedroom waiting," Squall said, before swaggering off. If that wasn't encouragement, I don't know what is. Soon enough the cake was abandoned and I stood at the doorway to the bedroom. 

"My present, Squall?" I asked him. He smiled. You know what came next. 

My eighteen-year-old self was wrong. Happy 20th Birthday indeed. 

Note: Sorry for screwing up Seifer and Squall. I hope you liked my fic and please review! 


End file.
